geoscience australia’s petroleum program · geoscience australia ga's regional petroleum...

Geoscience Australia’s Petroleum Program

Geoscience Australia

GA's Regional Petroleum Program - June 2015

AUSTRALIAN GOVERNMENTThe Hon Ian Macfarlane MP

Department of Industry and Science

GeoscienceAustralia

Canberra offices

630 employeesOrganic Geochemistry, Sedimentology & Palynological laboratoriesNational Repository

Geoscience Australia:• applies geoscience to Australia’s most important challenges• is the Government’s technical advisor on all aspects of geoscience• is custodian of the geoscience data and information for the nation

Geoscience Australia’s Petroleum ProgramRole: Attract exploration investment to Australia by building a prospectus of energy resource potential

Strategies:

• Provide information to support the annual offshore acreage release

• Provide a functional national repository of offshore petroleum data and samples

• National Offshore Petroleum Data and Core Repository

• National Offshore Petroleum Information Management System (NOPIMS)

• Identify new prospective energy provinces through the acquisition, analysis and delivery of pre‐competitive information

• Provide independent information and advice to government and other stakeholders


Geoscience Australia’s Role: Precompetitive Data


Relationship between exploration and precompetitive information

Petroleum Program Precompetitive Data Themes

National Scale Overview Studies Inventory of Frontier Basins Stratigraphic Frameworks

Regional Integration Studies NW Shelf Tectonic Framework Australian Source Rock Atlas Palaeogeographic Studies

Frontiers Basins North Houtman seismic survey Lord Howe Rise IODP

CO2 Storage Projects Pre‐competitive data relevant to

petroleum e.g. Gippsland seismic survey

© Commonwealth of Australia (Geoscience Australia) 2015 GA's Regional Petroleum Program - June 2015

NW Shelf Tectonic Framework

Gippsland seismic survey

Browse Petroleum Systems

Houtman seismic survey

Stratigraphic Frameworks

Australia’s offshore frontier basins

Inventory of Offshore Frontier Basins


• Comprehensive assessment of:

• Geology

• Petroleum systems

• Exploration status

• Data coverage

• 35 offshore basins and sub‐basins

• Analysis of the critical exploration and geoscientific questions

• Recommendations for future work Download from:www.ga.gov.au

• Onshore inventory now underway

Stratigraphic Frameworks


• Regularly updated regional basin biozonation charts

• Data packs available – Timescale Creator software

• Available for 12 basins

Download from: www.ga.gov.au

Regional Integration Studies:NW and W Margin Regional Structural Study


2014-2015 FY

• New Browse Basin aeromagnetic data

2015 onwards

• Regional structural & stratigraphic mapping

• Depth to basement; volcanic distribution; margin segmentation

• Characterise basement as a guide to rheology and thermal history

Download from: www.geoscience.gov.au

• Tectonic evolution, structural architecture, re‐activation

• Trap integrity and fault‐risk

• Distribution and impact of magmatic rock

Browse Aeromagnetic Survey

Regional Integration Studies:Australian Source Rocks

Collaborative studies to identify and characterise hydrocarbon sources, families and systems both onshore and offshore


2014‐2015

• Browse petroleum accumulations and source rock study

2015‐2017

• NW shelf: expand existing work into Triassic and older

• Larapintine petroleum systems: source rock evaluation in Paleozoic basins of northern Australia

• Cooper, Georgina Basin pilot studies

Cooper Basin Source Rock Atlas

Geographic Frontiers

• Improve knowledge of the resource potential of the Australian Marine Jurisdiction

• Provide an environmental baseline

• Inboard areas: e.g. Northern Houtman

• Remote areas: e.g. Lord Howe Rise

Lord Howe Rise (GowerMooreMonawai)

Southern Sorell,South Tasman Rise

N. HoutmanS. Carnarvon


Acquisition of new data in poorly understood and remote frontier basins

Geographic Frontiers: Houtman Seismic Survey


• Northern Houtman and Zeewyck Sub‐basins: large, potentially prospective frontier depocentres

• Immediately adjacent to prospective areas of the northern Perth Basin

2014‐2015

• Nov‐Dec 2014 ‐ 3308 line km of 2D seismic data acquired

M/V Duke

2015‐2016

• Data processing/ interpretation

2016 onwards

• Assess petroleum prospectivity and suitability for acreage release

Geographic Frontiers: IODP – Lord Howe Rise

• One of the largest remaining geological frontiers

• Sparse scientific knowledge ‐ No deep drill sites


2015‐2016: Full proposal submission

2016‐2017: Pre‐site surveys in conjunction with JAMSTEC

2017‐2018: Stratigraphic Drilling (Total Depth: 2.5–3.5 km)

Chikyu

• Purpose: recover a complete Early to Late Cretaceous stratigraphic record from a rift depocentre and sample the pre‐rift sedimentary succession

Recent CO2 Storage Potential Studies

• Improve understanding of Australia’s sedimentary basins and their potential for greenhouse gas storage

• Pre‐competitive datasets relevant to petroleum exploration

• Gippsland Basin Seismic surveys

• GDPI10 2D survey (2010)

• 2D Infill survey (2015)

• Marine sampling surveys

• Browse Basin (2014)

• Vlaming Sub‐basin (2012)

• Bonaparte Basin (2011)

• Gippsland Basin (2014)


Shipboard mapping and sampling

ROV – Physical InvestigationAUV – Detailed mapping

Gippsland Seismic Surveys

Additional Pre-Competitive Data Sources

• Geoscience Australia website www.ga.gov.au


• Australian Government Geoscience Portal http://www.geoscience.gov.au/

Additional Pre-Competitive Data Sources

• Geoscience Australia website www.ga.gov.au


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